Status of the Finnish State Church in 2007

This article consists of two parts.
The first part explains the state church status of the
Finnish
Evangelical Lutheran Church
and its privileges that other ideological organizations lack.
This article will argue for the separation of state and church in Finland.
The second part covers a web site,
Eroakirkosta.fi,
created by
The Freethinkers of Tampere
in 2003
to assist people in resigning from the state church to suppress its power.
The Eroakirkosta.fi web site has noticeably increased resignation rates in
Finland due to marketing, the general attitude towards the church, and
the ease of resigning through the web site.

Approximately 82% of the Finns belong to the Evangelic Lutheran Church.
The term state church will henceforth refer to it. There are
actually two state churches in Finland, but the other state church, the
Finnish Orthodox Church,
is not covered since only 1.1% of the population belong to it.

This article is a continuation for an
article
published in Slashdot last year. The purpose of this article is to
convey the status of one of the last state churches in Western countries
for a non-Finnish audience.

The 76th Article of the Finnish Constitution explicitly names the Evangelical
Lutheran Church as being directed by the Church Laws. The Evangelical
Lutheran Church is the only church named in the constitution.
The Church Law gives it special privileges, which we will list here:

The state church taxes its members through state officials with an
income tax:

Church members pay income tax of 1.0% to 2.25%
(depending on municipality) for the church

State tax officials will collect the membership tax and
give it to the church

All companies have to pay taxes to the state church

The state church has a law-protected monopoly in burial of the dead

The church must bury everyone (a church member or not) using the tax
money

The state church avoids 4% tax when selling real estate

This privilege is not unique to the state church, but applies
to all religious organizations that are officially registered

Other ideological organizations do not have this privilege

As an exception, not all religious organizations get this benefit,
as some are not registered as religious organizations, and some
religious organizations were denied the right to register
themselves (Wiccans,
for example)

Whether or not these benefits seem reasonable or not, they are, at the very least, unfair towards other ideological organizations, whether they are religious or not.
Also, it can be argued that the money transferred to the church may
cause some small (but direct) financial harm for the society. But in particular,
it may alienate some people because the law takes an ideological side in favor
of one particular faith.

Ironically, this could be viewed as a result of some sort of
democracy, as most people in the past really subscribed to the idea
of state church. For these reasons, separation of state and church should
be made explicit in the Law.
The Freethinkers of Tampere
(the authors of this article) pursue this goal by encouraging people to resign
from the state church. It is likely that the state church will see a
significant membership drop if these privileges are dropped, since
members will then directly see the tax it places on its members.

The Finnish law still has sections that criminalize
degrading a god or that which is held sacred by some religious
organization.
Approximately once a year, someone is sentenced for breaking this law.
In the year 2000 a rock band was sentenced for degrading a religion.
The band was sentenced for its performance of shouting
"Fuck Christ" and breaking a wooden cross on the stage.
The maximum sentence for sacrilege is 6 months in prison.

The Union of Freethinkers
were considered for prosecution in 2006 for publishing a comic satire
of Christianity in the web. In the end, the state decided not to
prosecute.

As the Evangelic Lutheran church holds the position of the state church, it should
show example by conforming to established laws. However,
in 2007 there have been two cases giving dubious publicity to the church.

The status of female priesthood was thought to be solved in 1980s when
it was allowed by the church. The debate was largely over
after 1990s. Women were commonly accepted as equal priests,
but not all agreed.
In March 2007, a male priest at Hyvinkää refused to perform a
mass with a female priest
(source).
This yielded an official criminal
investigation as Finnish law prohibits gender-based discrimination.
After this, 90 priests signed a petition in favor of gender-based discrimination.

The debate is dividing the church internally. The highest governing
body of the church needs to take a side between the liberals and
the conservatives, because the press and members are demanding that they do so.
Taking the liberal side means losing the support of the conservative side
(who are the core supporters of the church). The official
position of the church is currently that of the liberal side (thus rejecting
gender-based discrimination). Only a small portion of priests refuse to
work with female priests, and the large majority of church members
sees this small portion very negatively. However,
the approval of gender-based discrimination is still strong among active members
of the church.

From a political point of view, the liberal policy is winning because
a conservative policy would accelerate membership loss of the church,
which is already high.
Each appearance of the debate in the press causes some members to resign,
and several thousand have already left the church (Finland's population is 5.3 million).

Whether or not a female priesthood is compatible with the teachings of the church
has not been a large issue with the majority of members.
The debate largely centers around
what is considered the moral thing to do (social equality),
the future of the church, and adherence to laws.

In 2007 Finnish Ecumenic community published a guide instructing that
church members should protect refugees, even if their asylum has been
denied (i.e. they have to leave the country).
The church thinks its ethics are reason enough to resist state officials,
thus undermining democracy and the rule of law.
The story became relevant with an Iranian Kurd seeking asylum in Finland.
The story is often covered in newspapers; see stories
here and
here.

The state church has lost members rapidly since year 2000.
In the year 2000, 85% of the people were members of the state church,
and in the end of year 2006, the same number was 82.4%. That is,
2.6% of the Finnish people left the church in six years.
There are 5.3 million people
in Finland.
The following table shows the decrease in church membership
from 2000 to 2006:

The Freethinkers of Tampere created a web site,
Eroakirkosta.fi
("eroa kirkosta" roughly translates to "resign from the church"),
in 2003 to assist people to
resign from the state church to further the goal of
separation of state and church, and to
promote a secular
society.
The web site became a success; in 2006 79% of all resignations
went through the site. The same figure was 69% in 2005,
and 39% in 2004.

Easy resignation through the web site has been a key factor in our success.
Resigning through the
web site only requires filling a short personal information form,
after which a local city council will receive an email about the
resignation. This was made possible by a law passed in 2004
regarding email exchange with state officials. As a consequence, it
was possible (with some citizen activism) to create an auxiliary route
for resignees. The state has an
official web service for people to resign, but only a fraction of
people use it due to insufficient visibility and bad usability.
For the Freethinkers, this was an opportunity to present themselves in
the media.

Interestingly, 58% of the resignees are men, and
61% of resignees are under 30 years old, counting year 2007 only. Men
and younger people seem to be more secular than
women and older people, respectively.

The membership loss and the privileges of the state church have given
the Freethinkers an opportunity to present themselves in the media, thus
increasing resignation rates in Finland to drive for the separation of
state and church. The membership loss is not slowing down in the
foreseeable future, but is instead accelerating all the time. Furthermore,
unlawful practices and the seemingly overprivileged status of the church
has put it into the test of public criticism.